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<title>Daily Smile: Tuesday, February 3, 2026</title>

Daily Smile: Tuesday, February 3, 2026

 It&#039;s always good to teach your dog how to let you know when he&#039;s hungry...

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Government & Politics

Business & Tourism

Hawai‘i’s economy is one of the weakest in the nation after decades of stagnation, claims a new report from the University of Hawai‘i.

UH’s Economic Research Organization published on Sunday a report — “

” — breaking down the economic pressures facing the state.

Steven Bond-Smith, UH professor and lead author of the report, told reporters Monday that the report was an investigation into what has motivated people to leave the Islands in droves over the last two decades. Bond-Smith said that, for 23 of the last 25 years, more residents have moved away than new arrivals have moved in, with the leavers commonly citing a high cost-of-living as their reason for moving elsewhere.

However, that high cost-of-living isn’t the whole picture, Bond-Smith said, explaining that the state’s economic growth hasn’t been able to keep up with the rest of the nation.

Beginning in the late 80s, Bond Smith said the state’s compound annual growth rate — which had previously been consistent with the national average — slowed, leading to a widening gap between Hawai‘i and the rest of the country. The result, he said, has been wage stagnation, and a reduction in labor opportunities.

Adjusting for inflation and the higher cost of goods in Hawai‘i, Bond-Smith said the state’s economic growth is more reminiscent of a decaying post-coal Rust Belt town.

“Hawai‘i is expensive, but once we adjust for that, it’s clear that Hawai‘i is also being left behind, comparable to some of the most economically distressed places in the country,” Bond-Smith said.

Bond-Smith said communities in Appalachia that were once economically reliant on the coal industry began stagnating as the demand for coal dropped because those communities didn’t have diverse enough economies to cover the shortfall.

In the same way, Hawai‘i's tourist-centric economy doesn’t have other sectors robust enough to make up for weaknesses in the tourism industry, he said: the state simply lacks a major export industry to attract dollars from out-of-state.

The report notes that other areas with high costs of living such as San Francisco or Los Angeles are still able to maintain populations through the prospect of high wages. Hawai‘i, however, has the worst of both worlds: high costs and low incomes, leading to more people leaving the state.

The report concludes with only a few solutions. On one hand, the report acknowledges that tourism will remain the backbone of the state’s economy for decades, and Bond-Smith said that the tourism industry will likely provide the greatest opportunities for economic growth.

Bond-Smith said boosting value within tourism, such as through sports or event tourism, could help stimulate growth in an industry that has otherwise plateaued.

Meanwhile, UHERO Executive Director Carl Bonham said that identifying and removing barriers preventing new industries from taking root in Hawai‘i will be essential to diversify the economy. However, the report states that such new industries will likely grow out of the existing activities and industries within the state — that is, from tourism.

"It means investing in infrastructure that supports economic activity, increasing skills that allow workers to move into higher-value jobs and creating the right conditions for new tradable industries," Bond-Smith said.

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

A view of Honolulu

<title>UHERO report: Hawai‘i's economy one of nation's weakest</title>

UHERO study of the state's economy highlights high cost of living, low income growth

UHERO report: Hawai‘i's economy one of nation's weakest

Kam Napier Headshot

A. Kam Napier

Columnists

 Gov. Josh Green’s press conference on Tuesday, held at the Hawai‘i State Capitol, in which he and other lawmakers and community leaders called for anti-ICE legislation here in the Islands. The event was hosted by the ACLU of Hawai‘i, the Legal Clinic of Hawai‘i and the Hawai‘i Coalition for Immigrant Rights, attended by Green, Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, House Speaker Nadine Nakamura and other lawmakers. It was held as a vigil for Alex Pretti, who had been shot and killed by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis Saturday.

This is Official Hawai‘i — state government policy leaders — and it’s very upset about Minneapolis, where now two activists have been killed while interfering with federal law enforcement. In their telling, it’s ICE that is out of control, and Hawai‘i has to do something to keep things like that from happening here.

Except the laws they’re proposing would recreate the very conditions that fostered a battleground in Minneapolis. If passed, they would increase, not decrease, the likelihood of danger for everyone involved — arrestees, protestors, ICE agents, bystanders. Everyone.

Let’s back up a second. If you’re upset about Minneapolis, do you ever wonder why you aren’t upset about cities in Texas, Florida, or Tennessee, where ICE is also detaining, arresting and deporting illegal immigrants?

[{"type":"text","text":"What made Minneapolis different?"}]

Specific decisions by Minnesota politicians and lawmakers to withhold local law enforcement support. This forced ICE to conduct its arrests in public, while these same politicians gave fiery speeches denouncing ICE as unbridled fascists. Officials there even withheld the local police support that would’ve kept order as the fired-up activists took the most confrontational approach possible short of open insurrection.

[{"type":"text","text":"If you don’t believe me, maybe you’ll believe the cops there:"}]

Minnesota cops beg Walz, pols to let them work with ICE, say they could have prevented shootings

In cities where local authorities help, there is no mayhem in the streets.

So what is Hawai‘i doing? Holding press conferences decrying ICE while proposing the same kind of adversarial legislation.

 article, so to keep it brief, a package of House and Senate Bills would do such things as prohibit local law enforcement agencies from entering into an agreement with ICE to carry out immigration enforcement on ICE’s behalf; prohibit ICE from interviewing people while in local custody (even though this is the safest place to do it); prohibit local cops from inquiring about a person’s immigration status; limit information sharing between state and county agencies and ICE; and more.

Green has promised to fast-track this legislation. Maybe, instead, legislators should be thoughtful and deliberate. I’d prefer they legislate about reality not distortions.

What distortions? Take a look at our photo, above, of Gov. Green and his supporters from Tuesday’s press conference. What do you see? Earnest, sincere, worried faces, to be sure.

[{"type":"text","text":"One also sees claims and assertions on signs."}]

“PEOPLE MURDERED BY ICE … AND PEOPLE KILLED BY TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION AND DEPORTATION PRISONS:”

There follows a list of at least 30 visible names, which I started looking up, at random. And first of all, I should say, this sign is not an expose of secret knowledge. You can find the notices of “

” at ICE’s own website, as required by Congress. Here’s what I found:

 Duarte illegally entered the U.S. the first time 1976 in Arizona. He was charged with such crimes as burglary, theft and drug possession between 1984 and 2000. He was convicted in 2005 of sex crimes against children and sentenced by the Superior Court of Arizona 20 years in prison. That’s where ICE found him in January 2025, in an Arizona prison, before moving him to an ICE detention center in preparation for deportation. There his poor health was observed, and he was sent, not to any prison, but to Phoenix Specialty Hospital — a real hospital — where he was treated for six months before dying of natural causes.

 Assuming he is the same man is Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez, he never made it to an ICE facility nor was he murdered. When ICE raided an LA Home Depot, he 

, unpursued, straight into the 210 Freeway in Monrovia, where he was hit by a car.

 A citizen of Vietnam, he was originally granted lawful permanent resident status in the U.S. in 1999, lost that status following a drug crime conviction. Last June, he was detained at Immigration Processing Center in Texas. An LPN there noted his multiple medical conditions, told him to take his insulin every day for diabetes. Phan would not take his insulin. Health care workers there also noted his high cholesterol and prescribed a medication for that, too. He wouldn’t take it. He was found having a seizure and transferred to a hospital where his own next of kin signed a do-not-resuscitate order for him, opting for hospice care instead. Phan died in the hospital when staff withdrew life support for that transfer.

. Vietnamese citizen, originally granted Legal Permanent Resident status in the U.S. in 1983. Convicted of murder in Orange County, Calif., in 1991. By the time he was detained at the El Paso Processing Center last February, he had a host of health problems and he was quickly transferred to the University Medical Center for evaluation, then the Long-Term Acute Care Hospital — a physician-owned hospital — where he stayed for many months, being treated for dementia until he died in the hospital of this condition.

I’m four names in and I’m not finding “PEOPLE KILLED BY TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION AND DEPORTATION PRISONS.” I’m finding people who ICE treated promptly and moved to real hospitals when their health conditions were serious. The records don’t say who paid for their care. I’m assuming that once the federal government assumed responsibility for them, taxpayers paid for everything.

The first three names on the sign have red asterisks, so I assume these are the ones that — iron-clad, all-caps, unequivocally — fall under the “PEOPLE MURDERED BY ICE” heading. Renee Good. Keith Porter. Geraldo Campos. The sign must’ve been made before Alex Pretti’s shooting. Renee Good’s case is familiar to all, and everyone has made up their mind as to murder vs. justifiable homicide vs manslaughter. The other two?

 Killed by an off-duty ICE agent on New Year’s Eve in Carson, Calif., when the agent investigated sounds of gunfire near his apartment and found Porter holding a rifle and shot him. Doesn’t seem related to any question of Porter’s citizenship, or any ICE operation. And as for the circumstances, I’ll just share some California reporting from 

Advocates say Porter had been firing the gun into the air as a way of observing the holiday 

 a practice routinely condemned by law enforcement officials.

"Yes, it was illegal, but at the end of the day, it's an American tradition," said organizer Najee Ali, the director of Project Islamic Hope.

[{"type":"text","text":"I can’t even. Really?"}]

 Cuban, here illegally since 1996, with past convictions in the U.S. for weapons charges, sexual abuse of a child; petit larceny; DUI and drug crimes. Died Jan. 3 in the Camp East Montana ICE facility following some kind of altercation with guards. His death has been 

, it’s unclear where things stand with an investigation to determine if it was murder. Department of Homeland Security says Campos was belligerent and attempting suicide and needed to be restrained, his death accidental. Other detainees claim he was suffocated by guards in the encounter.

And if that’s true, and they were in the wrong, throw the book at them. Just like we would any guard at any Hawai‘i prison that did such a thing. But I wouldn’t take this sign’s word for it, it so far proving to be less than fair and honest.

Green and Hawai‘i lawmakers are not responsible for every word of every sign that might appear in their vicinity. But no sign at this particular event was there by accident. This was a stage-managed event, designed for publicity. In the largest sense, Green, the Hawai‘i lawmakers, and the nonprofits leading the Make Hawai‘i Minneapolis campaign are standing up for these claims as if they were incontrovertible facts. They are just so certain 

 and they’re intent on rushing legislation with fierce urgency. They're doing so with what looks a fairly obvious mix of good, if poorly thought-out, intentions and cynical, politicized grandstanding.

Under such circumstances, maybe stop and think before blindly passing any of these bills.

A. Kam Napier is editor in chief of Aloha State Daily. His opinions in Pipikaula Corner are his own and not reflective of the ASD team.

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<title>Pipikaula Corner: Hawai‘i’s proposed anti-ICE laws mimic Minneapolis in the worst ways</title>

On Tuesday, Gov. Green and Hawai‘i lawmakers stood in front of some wild allegations about ICE, and they're about to rush legislation as if every horror story on display were true.

Pipikaula Corner: Hawai‘i’s proposed anti-ICE laws mimic Minneapolis in the worst ways

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

The Capitol is quiet Thursday morning as a handful of people wander around the central atrium. A small group, decked out in red, make their way through security.

They’re some of 16 architects representing the AIA Hawai‘i State Council — itself comprised of the AIA Honolulu and AIA Maui chapters of the American Institute of Architects — who were meeting with legislators as part of the organization’s architectural advocacy day.

The aim was to engage with lawmakers to address key priorities and showcase the role architecture plays in shaping Hawai‘i’s communities.

“Most of our priorities have to do with housing,” Julia Fink, executive vice president of AIA Hawai‘i, told Aloha State Daily. “Of course, we’re interested in housing affordability, adaptive reuse. We’re looking at the SMA [special management area] processes, trying to make sure that it’s still fair but maybe a little bit more efficient.”

The group also supports updates to the State Historic Preservation Division processes, she notes.

“There are lots of bills this session about shifting SHPD timelines or their processes, so we want to get a better understanding of how that would play out in practice so that the architects can actually get their projects to go through while still respecting the important historical land that the buildings would be on.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Fink says advocacy is a big part of what the association does."}]

“Advocacy is so important because the rules that are made here at the Capitol affect day-to-day practice,” she says. “When we talk about code advancement, that affects how every building is designed. We talk about resiliency, what kind of building materials are available, what kind of energy sustainability pieces can we push forward to make sure we’re meeting our state goals and that the buildings are working better for us. They should be great places for us to live in and work in and play in, and places that people want to go. Architects are very 

passionate about creating healthy, safe places for people to be.

Upstairs, Krithika Penedo, Julie Lam and Marni Tam, one of four groups meeting with lawmakers Thursday, sit across from Hilo state Rep. Sue Keohokapu-Lee Loy, who said she “kind of fan girls over AIA.”

“I think their grasp of a very complex subject, it’s just wondrous to me,” Keohokapu-Lee Loy told ASD. “… I have a couple of bills around housing, which actually will touch the construction codes, so getting their feedback is just so valuable.”

Legislation introduced by Keohokapu-Lee Loy and other lawmakers includes 

, which calls for the development of a permitting workforce pipeline; 

, which proposes the development of a statewide permitting intake platform; 

,  which would require the State Building Code Council to provide training to state and county permitting agency employees; and 

, which would establish a working group within the State Building Code Council to develop proposals for an off-site construction program. So far, the bills have passed first reading and been referred to various committees, but no public hearings have been scheduled as of Friday.

Penedo, Lam and Tam later met with Mānoa Rep. Andrew Takuya Garrett. During their conversation, Garrett, chair of the House Committee on Higher Education, asked several questions about the architecture workforce, the impact of AI technology on the profession and how to address affordable housing needs.

Much of the time spent at the Capitol was just meeting representatives “and letting them know about the American Institute for Architects,” Penedo told ASD. While some discussion centers around specific bills, “today is for us to introduce ourselves to folks who don’t know us yet, how we can be a resource, what we do and where we can provide expertise in some of these upcoming bills.”

Lam says it’s important for AIA to do this kind of advocacy “because we are the last ones to know about all the changes that come out and it affects us tremendously. We don’t want to be in that position anymore, so we’d like to help because we have the expertise and we really like to just be a resource for everyone.”

“I think one of the main reasons that we want to be here is because right now, we’re dealing with a housing affordability crisis and then just a lack of housing,” David Sellers, principal architect with Maui-based Hawai‘i Off-Grid Architecture and Engineering as well as Surf Block Maui, told ASD. “Obviously as architects, we know a little bit about housing and there’s a lot of things that affect that.”

Building codes, for example, is one area of expertise, and there are a lot of bills introduced by lawmakers that affect change with those, says Sellers, who’s also a board member of the AIA Hawai‘i state chapter.

“When that happens, we love it, one, that there’s action taking place that directly affects us, but we also want to have the opportunity to provide testimony and just talk story.”

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

AIA hawaii advocacy day 012926

<title>Hawai‘i architects meet with lawmakers</title>

AIA Hawai‘i State Council hosted its Architecture Advocacy Day at the state Capitol on Thursday, Jan. 29.

Hawai‘i architects meet with lawmakers

The government will partially shut down again beginning Saturday after the Senate passed a disputed budget bill on Friday.

The U.S. Senate has been deadlocked over an appropriations measure for the 

. The version of the bill that the House had narrowly passed last week included funding for several federal agencies, but also more than $10 billion for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which several Democrats said they would refuse to approve.

It worked: the Senate voted Friday to pass a version of the bill with the ICE funding stripped out. The new version of the measure provides short-term funds for the Department of Homeland Security for the next two weeks.

Both Hawai‘i's senators, Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono voted for the bill, with the final tally showing 71 votes in favor and 29 opposed. Most of the votes in opposition were from Democrats.

Hirono said after the vote that Congress now has "two weeks to negotiate immediate, common-sense guardrails to rein in the lawlessness of ICE." 

"Over the next two weeks, the onus will be on the Republicans to agree to the serious reforms Democrats are demanding," Hirono said. "I will continue my work fighting for other reforms, including giving people the ability to hold lawless government agents accountable."

Meanwhile, Schatz touted several appropriations earmarked for Hawai‘i within the bill, including $1.9 million for Maui nursing home improvements, $1.6 million to support digitization projects at Bishop Museum, $7.3 million to Hawai‘i County to develop a highway in West Hawai‘i, $7 million to the City and County of Honolulu to extend the Mālaekahana bike path and more.

However, the Friday vote was not enough to wholly avoid a government shutdown. The House must once again vote on the bill before it goes to President Donald Trump’s desk, and because the House will not vote before Monday, funding has lapsed for several government agencies, including the departments of Defense, State, Human Services and more.

Senators

<title>CONGRESS WATCH: Partial shutdown coming this weekend after Senate vote</title>

Senate votes to pass budget bill, minus ICE funds

CONGRESS WATCH: Partial shutdown coming this weekend after Senate vote

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Smile 26 1 28

<title>Daily Smile: Wednesday, January 28, 2026</title>

"This is the largest stick Daisy has ever selected to bring home..."

Daily Smile: Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Daniel Farr 02

Daniel Farr

The Maui County Council has taken its first formal step toward creating two new hotel zoning districts designed to accommodate certain existing vacation rental properties as the County moves forward with a phased ban on transient vacation rentals in apartment-zoned areas.

By an 8-1 vote on Jan. 7, the Council approved Resolution 25-230, sending a proposed ordinance establishing H-3 and H-4 hotel districts to the Lanaʻi, Maui and Molokaʻi Planning Commissions for review and feedback. The resolution does not rezone any properties but begins the required review process under the County Charter.

The resolution is closely tied to Bill 9, the Council-approved measure that sets a timeline to phase out transient vacation rentals in apartment districts countywide. Under Bill 9, vacation rentals would no longer be permitted in West Maui apartment districts after 2028, with apartment districts elsewhere in the county following on Jan. 1, 2031.

Councilman Tom Cook, who chairs the Water and Infrastructure Committee and represents the South Maui residency area on the County Council, told Aloha State Daily that the new zoning categories are intended to acknowledge that not all apartment‑zoned vacation rental properties can realistically transition to long‑term housing.

“It became clear that not all affected properties are suitable for residential conversion,” Cook said.

Cook said many of the properties impacted by Bill 9 are older buildings with high maintenance costs, leasehold constraints, or locations vulnerable to sea-level rise, making residential use impractical. The H-3 and H-4 districts, he said, would allow those legacy visitor properties to remain appropriately zoned rather than being forced into a housing role they cannot reasonably fulfill.

At the same time, Cook said the approach allows the County to focus housing efforts on properties that are better suited for residential use, while maintaining stable real property tax and general excise tax revenue that supports infrastructure, services and housing programs.

Cook emphasized that the proposed districts would not automatically rezone properties or expand the number of vacation rentals.

“The creation of the H-3 and H-4 districts does not automatically rezone any property, nor does it add new vacation rental properties,” he told ASD.

Any property seeking H-3 or H-4 zoning would still be required to meet all applicable development standards and planning requirements. The primary difference, Cook said, is that the new hotel districts would allow transient vacation rentals, while A-1 and A-2 apartment zoning would not.

The Council opted to transmit a clean version of the bill to the planning commissions without attaching site-specific environmental conditions. Cook said that approach was intentional, since the zoning categories could apply in a variety of settings.

“Environmental considerations are best addressed during the actual rezoning process,” Cook told ASD, when individual property conditions can be evaluated.

Cook added that, in his view, shoreline erosion and sea-level-rise risks should be addressed comprehensively across all shoreline properties, rather than through zoning-specific rules. Those concerns, he said, should be examined when individual properties apply for rezoning, as appropriate.

Asked how the Council is weighing housing goals against potential impacts to County revenue, Cook said the Temporary Investigative Group’s recommendations for H-3 and H-4 districts reflect an effort to support housing while keeping the County's finances in mind.

“Housing policy must be balanced with economic reality,” he told ASD.

Cook declined to comment on how the proposal could affect the County’s legal position amid pending litigation related to Bill 9, citing County policy on ongoing lawsuits.

The planning commissions are expected to review the proposed ordinance and provide findings and recommendations to the Council before any further legislative action is taken.

Daily Smile: Tuesday, February 3, 2026

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Daily Smile: Tuesday, February 3, 2026

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